To the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Police Department:

Fourteen-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez deserves complete justice. David Anthony Burke has been charged with her murder, continuous sexual abuse and unlawful mutilation of human remains. He has pleaded not guilty, and the allegations must be resolved through the judicial process.

Public court records also show that David Burke’s parents, Dawud and Colleen Burke, were considered material witnesses in the grand-jury investigation. Colleen Burke reportedly played an important role in her son’s career and finances, and both parents challenged orders requiring them to appear before the California grand jury. These circumstances raise legitimate questions about what people close to David Burke knew and when they knew it, but they do not by themselves establish anyone’s guilt.

We therefore call upon law enforcement and prosecutors to:

1. Fully investigate every person who may have assisted with transporting Celeste, concealing or moving her remains, destroying evidence, moving the Tesla or financing any part of an alleged cover-up.
2. Continue pursuing lawful testimony, communications, financial records and other evidence from all material witnesses, including relevant relatives, employees and business associates.
3. File charges against any additional person only when supported by admissible evidence and probable cause.
4. Release appropriate findings about possible accomplices when doing so will no longer compromise the prosecution or Celeste’s family’s privacy.
   This petition does not presume that Dawud Burke, Colleen Burke or any other uncharged individual committed a crime. It demands that wealth, fame, family connections and professional influence never prevent investigators from following the evidence wherever it leads.

As to Dawud and Colleen Burke: There are legitimate unanswered questions

1. Dawud and Colleen Burke were ordered to appear as material witnesses before the California grand jury. Prosecutors maintained their testimony was necessary, while the Burkes challenged the orders because portions of the supporting material were redacted. Texas appellate courts initially rejected their challenges; the state’s highest criminal court later treated the matter as moot after the appearance date passed. That legal fight may appear suspicious, but challenging a subpoena is not evidence of involvement in a crime, and judges acknowledged that their due-process objection presented a real procedural question.
2. Court records reportedly described Colleen as instrumental in David’s career and responsible for managing business finances, while describing both parents as having close relationships with him. That could explain why prosecutors considered their testimony important, but it does not prove what they knew.
3. Through their attorney, Dawud and Colleen publicly supported their son and said they believed him innocent while continuing to contest the subpoenas. Again, that may deserve scrutiny, but parents defending their child is not proof of criminal conduct.
4. ABC7 previously reported, citing sources close to the investigation, that investigators were examining whether dismembering and concealing Celeste’s remains involved more than one person. The reporting did not publicly identify either parent as that possible additional person, and the sources I reviewed contain no established link between them and such assistance

Celeste deserves the full truth. Not speculation, selective accountability or unanswered questions.